The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a multiple connector system for an information handling system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems such as, for example, server devices, networking devices, storage devices, and/or other computing devices are often coupled together via cables. Furthermore, these computing devices may also include cables that couple together their various components. For example, interconnect cables such as nano-pitch input/output (NPIO) cables may be provided for serial attached small computer system interface (SCSI) (SAS) connections, serial AT attachment (SATA) connections, and peripheral component interconnect express (PCI) connections, any of which may be used in different applications including storage-to-controller applications, server-to-server applications, server-to-switch applications, switch-to-switch applications, mobile applications, enterprise applications, and/or a variety of other NPIO connection applications known in the art. An NPIO cable includes at least one NPIO connector that can be inserted into a NPIO connector receptacle that is typically attached to a surface of a printed circuit board (PCB) and connected to one or more components on the PCB. Because it often desirable to have PCBs with small form factors and efficient component layouts, space on a PCB for multiple NPIO connector receptacles is often limited, which results in the NPIO connector receptacles often being spaced relatively close together on the PCB. However, the decreased spacing may make it difficult, if not impossible, to insert adjacent NPIO connectors a row and/or column of NPIO connector receptacles, as an NPIO connector housing of an NPIO connector may block another NPIO connector from being inserted into an adjacent receptacle. Furthermore, some applications require two NPIO cables, which can further exacerbate the problems discussed above.
NPIO connector cables that include multiple NPIO connectors on a single NPIO connector housing have been developed. Those multiple NPIO connectors may be inserted into, and released from, multiple NPIO connector receptacles on the PCB at the same time. However, as data transfer needs and the number of components of computing devices increase, the number of NPIO connections provided on the PCBs increase as well, and a common practice is to provide those NPIO connector receptacles arranged in an array. However, when a NPIO connector cable having multiple NPIO connectors is connected to a row of NPIO connector receptacles arranged in an array, and then other NPIO connectors on other NPIO cables are connected to NPIO connector receptacle in an adjacent row of the array, those NPIO connectors often block access to the release mechanism on the NPIO connector housing with multiple NPIO connectors, preventing a user from removing the NPIO connector housing and multiple NPIO connectors from the multiple NPIO connector receptacles. The user is then required to remove NPIO connectors from the PCB before being able to remove the NPIO connector housing with multiple NPIO connectors, which can lead to downtime for functions enabled by those additional NPIO cables, or can result in a user incorrectly reconnecting those NPIO cables to the wrong NPIO connector receptacles.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved multiple connector system.